Social media is a powerful tool. Success lies in the ability to analyze the data created from its’ use. There are a variety of metrics that can give insight needed to help companies make the right decisions about many things including their products, services and competitors.

I tweeted Victor Gaxiola, Customer Advocacy Manager for Hearsay Social and asked what type of social media performance metrics they use for both their own company and their clients. This was his response.

2015-02-25, 11:09 PM@GGriff05 We use our own metrics, built by some of the best engineering talent around. We look at engagement, reach, and post effectiveness

It’s not enough for companies to engage in social media. The key is being able to engage the right people. Those interested in your products or services, perhaps before they even know it. Keep in mind that social media is always evolving and to keep one step ahead Hearsays’ CEO, Clara Shih spoke about their newly created platform. According to Fortune magazine, Shih states that the Predictive Social Suite platform enables their clients to sift through information from social media and isolate that information which is relevant to their company.

Hearsay’s new platform predicts customer behavior by monitoring activity on clients’ websites as well as their social media networks. That way, Hearsay CEO Clara Shih told Fortune, financial advisors can both take advantage of the improved efficiency provided by automation and algorithms while still being “able to add their unique human value, the human touch.”

Roughly 65 percent of Fortune Global 100 companies have invested in a Twitter presence, and 54 percent have a presence on Facebook, according to Burston-Marsteller Communications. And 73.5 percent of chief marketing officers cite social media as a top business priority. Hearsay Social essentially shows them what they can do.

In the same article co-founder Clara Shih comments about company executives who don’t want their employees using social media while on the job.

“I tell them you already have 30,000 employees on the internet and they’re already representing you, unofficially,” she said. “The brand might be liable for anything that they say. You can change that risk into a number of digital brand representatives.”

The Proof…

While speaking with Kate Wilkinson of Canadian Business , Clara Shih revealed the following sales results compiled by Hearsay.

In a round of internal product testing (the results of which were released in August), Hearsay found that a group of its clients delivered sales that were between 11 and 22% better when social media was actively used in the selling process.

Another internal study showed that 64% of Hearsay’s clients said they had used the company’s social media products to find new sales leads, which acts as an indicator to Shih that corporate social media presence can lead to ROI.

Lessons for Others

It is still complicated when trying to directly connect the dots between social media and concrete results. Social media metrics are valuable tools. When used properly companies can benefit from them in many ways.

Shih does acknowledge that connecting social media to ROI is an “imperfect science,” primarily because it’s difficult to attribute which action on the part of a sales representative leads to the closing of a deal with a client.

“It’s not a single phone call or social media or a lunch,” says Shih. “It’s all of those things together.”